Support Our Bishops!

Is Senator Leahy Trying to Silence Bishops?

An article that appeared last summer in The Hill, an inside-baseball rag on Capitol Hill, suggests that he might be doing just that (well, they HAVE been silent, haven't they?).

Here's the Wanderer editorial that addresses the problem, and proposes some mild-mannered steps to take.

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Support Our Bishops! (from the Wanderer, 6-28-07)

By Christopher Manion – The Wander, June 28, 2007, p. 4

These are truly the times that try men’s souls. As The Wanderer reported last week, Sen. Patrick Leahy ( D., Vt.), a leader of the pro- abortion faction on Capitol Hill, has implicitly threatened any bishop who dares to defend a central truth of the faith, most recently confirmed by Pope Benedict en route to Brazil, that politicians who favor abortion rights “ exclude themselves from Communion.” Responding to the Pope’s statement, Sen. Leahy told a Capitol Hill reporter, “ I’ve always thought also that those bishops and archbishops who for decades hid pederasts and are now being protected by the Vatican should be indicted.”

In effect, Sen. Leahy is threatening every American bishop who does his job. And, at first blush, one would think that our bishops have every right to tremble before this American Caesar. After all, he directs a powerful arm of a secular government that is known for riding roughshod over Catholics who dare to hold their faith in Jesus Christ higher than their faith in the princes of the day. As chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Leahy has the power to subpoena the bishops of every diocese mentioned in the John Jay Report and put them under oath. After the bishops were cross-examined by every committee member, under the penalty of perjury, Leahy could then allow victims to have their say. It would all be broadcast live on CSPAN.

American bishops have spent tens of millions of dollars fighting similar efforts in criminal and civil courts throughout the country, but they would be powerless before Leahy’s committee. They need only recall what Anita Hill did to Clarence Thomas in that same forum some years back. No wonder they might tremble.

Leahy’s finely tuned outburst threatens to break an uneasy, de facto truce between bishops and pro- abort politicians that has prevailed in recent years.

On one side, the “ Catholic” politicians have not brought up the criminal sex abuse scandals, the thousands of clerical crimes and conspiracies, or the coverups that were conducted for decades by bishops and their chanceries. In like fashion, the bishops have remained mum on the ongoing and very public scandal perpetrated by leading advocates of abortion who brag about their Catholic faith and flaunt their ability to receive the Eucharist. In a cynical afterthought, congressional pro-aborts throw in over two billion a year of taxpayer dollars for Catholic Charities — to sweeten the pot, so to speak.

In effect, Leahy and his pro- abort colleagues are calling our bishops cowards. They apparently believe that our bishops dare not exercise their authority ( not to mention their responsibility) to protect the Eucharist from desecration, lest they be dragged in front of a Star Chamber whose verdict is already predetermined. But this is the threat that worldly powers have always thrown in the face of the successors of the apostles. “My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings. Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair,” they roar.

This is not only a tale of two scandals. It is a crisis, rising to a crescendo, in which the faithful must choose between a diabolical political gang that is intent on destroying Holy Mother Church in America, and the bishops whom Christ has given us to defend the sacraments, the faith, and its sacred treasures against all enemies.

The choice, of course, is clear: Our bishops must defy this threat from the princes of this world, and do their duty. And we must support them.